One about Vikings
by Beth Warlow
Summary: After a night with the vampire Eric, for Sookie comes the time to meet Eric the Viking, courtesy of her great-grandfather Niall. Post Death in the family
1. Chapter 1

**T/N: I know this is weird, but I read this story in Spanish and I wanted to share it in English. This story is written by anira22 a fabulous writer. So here is it…. Anira22 Espero que te agrade mi traducción… even with the disclaimer from the author, I will clarify Eric is MINE!**

**A/N: None of the characters in Southern Vampire Mysteries or True Blood belong to me. They are owned by Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball.**

**To those who had saved this story into their favorites and had left reviews, I am very sorry I deleted it by mistake, I hope you find it again and again put it in your favorites. Thanks in advance.**

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"Oh, Eric," I bumped into him when I was leaving home.

"Are you going somewhere, lover?"

"I was going to call you."

"Were you going to let me down, Sookie?" I smiled and nodded. "And what about that bouquet? Do you have a date with some another man whom are you bringing flowers?"

"What a fool" I stood in my tiptoes and reached to kiss his chin. "Tara gave birth this afternoon. I was going to see her and the twins at the hospital. I won't take long (She will be tired), you can wait at home."

"I'll go with you."

"No need, Eric" I didn't see him in a hospital room located in the maternity ward surrounded by blue bears, pink bunnies and colorful balloons, kids crying everywhere, elated parents and aching women in labor.

"When I was human I saw many births, animals and women, I do not think they changed a lot in 1000 years."

In the hospital I asked for Tara's room and I was a little bit upset when we were escorted there, all the way, while not losing Eric of sight as if they thought that at any moment he would pounce on the babies to steal them from their mothers. Eric didn't mind and even pleased a pair of frightened mothers showing his fangs in a threatening way. Tara pretended she was glad with my visit, not because it bothered her that Eric came with me, but because she had been admitted at the two in the morning and the twins hadn't wanted to born until two in the afternoon. 12 hours of labor. She told me she was exhausted but happy and JB also saw overjoyed. (I think Eric and him has developed a mutual dislike almost instantly when they knew each other.)

The two babies were much like JB, were extremely handsome, but at least Jack (the name they had decided to put the boy) had those open and lively eyes that gave him a living look which his father lacked, because JB had many virtues, but intelligence was not one of them. I didn't waited for Tara or he gave me permission to take the girl from her crib, once she was awake and carry her in my arms. I laughed watching JB juggling to hold his newborn son. It's amazing that despite big hands and big arms most men doesn't manage well to catch just a child. I melted when the small baby in my arms began to pout and made kitten like sounds. I stroked her cheeks soft skin with my nose and cooed her a little while putting a shrill and childish voice as I dropped absurdly meaningless drivel. Eric just was there standing, quiet, impassive, waiting.

Little Jack began to squirm and whine uncomfortable in the arms of his father. I noticed that Eric stretched arms and with an easy, simple and slow movement accommodated the child face down on one of his hands.

"Well I never thought a vampire ..." JB began to say.

"I had children when I was human" Eric defended himself "they like to be in their tummy. He has a strong neck" Eric said when he lifted his head to look around.

Tara and JB smiled, but I felt the cold invaded my guts and veins like my blood had frozen in that very same moment. It wasn't the first time I thought about my situation with Eric, I knew that the fact of being with a vampire meant that I couldn't have a normal life, and knew that being Eric's girlfriend means that I couldn't get pregnant either from him or any another guy… and probably, knowing the opinion that Eric had about some of the methods of modern medicine, even not through artificial insemination.

We were there to visit, and we would never get someone to visit us in the hospital for this happy reason. I would never be Tara and he would never be JB. He already had his children and it hadn't been with me.

Eric looked at me again and handed the baby to his father, he opened his eyes and roused himself while JB was trying without succeed, putting his on his tummy with the same grace that Eric had.

"We should go now," said my vampire "Women should rest."

I nodded, I handed the girl to Tara, and I gave them both a kiss and congratulated them for the last time. I walked out the door of the room with Eric behind me, his hand on my back, pushing me to leave that place.

I tried to cheer up with Eric on the way back home, but in the times he glanced at me I knew that he knew I was a bit sad at the time.

Perhaps because of the influence of his blood or maybe because I knew what I was going to get when we arrived home I began to feel a little more happy. Eric and I showered together and then we had dinner in my kitchen (or I had dinner and he looked at me) I told him I had spent four days working at the bar in the morning shift and if Sam don't change my shift soon, I would be soon like an indigent. Eric tried to talk about the hospital several times, but after my jogs he left it away and told me that Pam and he had spoken with the lawyer about opening a striptease club on Shreveport (Eric laughed at me and said that when he told me I put the same face that would have fairy after taking a bite of a sour lemon. Excuse me Mr. Viking I don't like that my boyfriend is going to open a place where he will be surrounded by naked beautiful women who will be more than happy to give him a private lap dance.)

Although I fell asleep exhausted, I would have preferred Eric to stay overnight, however, it must not be one o'clock in the morning when he approached and kissed me goodbye. I threw my arms around his neck and pull him toward me (Is not that I have enough force to knock Eric if he doesn't want to be knocked.)

"Stay, stay, stay ..."

"I have work at the bar, my sweet little baby."

"What if something happens while you're not here?" Low punch. He chuckled.

"I will come flying if I notice something weird. Bill also is a minute from here and I am sure he will be happy to be a hero with you."

"What if I get horny before dawn, should I call Bill?" Eric roared, buried his face in my neck and tickled me while I kicked the bed laughing. He lifted his face and gave me a big kiss.

"Tomorrow I'll stay all night" I clicked my tongue disappointed "Sorry you become sad at the hospital. I know you want to be a mother" I bit my lip and said nothing "Sorry I cannot give you that" I nodded and shrugged my shoulders. You cannot want a normal life, a normal family, a normal first love, a normal job, and children and also want to have an undying love. You have to give something away, and now I do not want to give Eric away. I think I will not want to give it up him ever.

I got out of bed because our activities had made me thirsty. I rubbed my eyes and turn on the hall light. I felt a presence behind me as soon as I set foot on the step. I froze the guts when I realized it was a fairy, a fairy who was not Dermot or my cousin Claude. I lost my balance noticing his hand on my back and I fell down the stairs. Before I hit my head, I seemed to see my great-grandfather Niall smiling at me.

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**If you like it please send your reviews I will translate all of it but you have to be patient there are 105 chapters. Cheer me up and I will hurry ok … bye**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm sorry that I take so long to update, but I had been writing my own stories, and to me it is double job. So please forgive me if I am slow.**

**I thank to ashmo2000, hitsrin, Skjoldmen, lunjul, saldred75, lacevas, Lara Kingsley, Bruja1775, kardamon, Perfecta999, nordiclover, Beertjes, Sookie-Eric, gleek987, topdog19, vampire696, EverlastingBeauty, GailJustGail, LizLizzy, Meekasa, Navidasti, RKandee13, TiaMalfoy1D, Ynaffit9885, bely1997bibi, erin1705, juliegh, mesmerizing and the viking's kittykat for all the cheering up, especially the ones who left reviews.**

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The light came through my eyelids causing the pain in my head became intensified. I touched where I had been hit and bit my lip. I was cold and for some strange reason that I didn't want think I felt my back, buttocks and legs wet, as if he had slept throughout the night on wet grass. I heard a noise to my left, as a branch braking while you step on it and I wide opened my eyes. The sun over my head blinded me, with shock and panic I realized that was outdoors. I pulled my hands away from my face and leaned on the ground to get up. My fingers dug between wet and cold leaves. I sat up and looked around. It was in the middle of a field, or forest. It was very cold, trees were bare and brown, and the sky had some high clouds that caught glimpses of the sun that had awakened me.

I stood up and felt the urge to scream, but anybody who had taken me there could hear me and I didn't know their intentions. I started walking, at least to warm up, after fifteen minutes I started to get really scared and tears began to appear. I didn't know where I was, but I for sure I knew, I wasn't in Louisiana. I am not an expert in flora and fauna, but I know the birches, oaks and beeches aren't characteristic trees from the south. The litter was so wet not even crunched under my feet. I hadn't seen a single house or a car track, I hadn't walked by any road and not even by climbing a tree I manage to watch a light tower. Became increasingly convinced that wherever I was, I had been brought here by the fairies, Dermot had told me that some of them liked to live in the lush forests of the country, those forests where there is hardly any trace of civilization and where for hundreds of miles it is not anything than nature.

I heard a horse whinnying and voices. I breathed relieved and screamed.

"Here, here! Help, please!"

A group of men on horseback appeared from behind some trees. I was so scared and it was so cold that until they approached I saw their strange clothing. They looked like something out of a movie or a medieval fair. A tall blond man, with long hair, beard and mustache dismounted. He was wrapped in a brown wolf fur and wore tan boots of the same material. He told me something in a language I didn't understand and when he apart the wolf fur to take out one arm and extend his hand in a gesture that indicated he wanted to come closer to me, I realized that he was wearing a long sword gleaming steel attached to the waist. I took two steps back, but he was faster, held me by the arm and I struggled and screamed. He yelled at me, he was shouting, but I didn't understand him. Finally, for the second time in a few hours I lost consciousness again after that, I suspect, hit me with his fist.

When I woke up I was safe and warm in bed. I snuggled between the sheets and I kept my eyes closed because of the headache. I had pasty mouth, so I assumed it was not Eric who had discovered me at the foot of the stairs, because he would have given me his blood and I would have felt well to wake up.

Finally opened my eyes, I was expecting to see Jason, or perhaps Dermot or even Claude. But all I found was air, the air between my body on the bed and a roof of dark woods of different hues. I wake up in a hurry and I felt dizzy. Everything was made of wood, except the window glass. It was like an opaque glass, dirty, not as defined and clear crystal glasses: it was raining. The other source of light came from an oil lamp. It was in a huge bed, at least three feet wide, covered with wolf skins. I looked underneath and saw that I was completely naked. My eyes filled with tears. As I started to hyperventilate, a red shadow appeared in the doorway.

A beautiful woman, would not exceed fifties, blonde, tall, with blue eyes and wearing a red velvet dress embroidered with golden threads, approached me. She didn't seem like a fairy, but certainly looked like something out of a tale.

She approached and offered me a clay glass of water. I drank greedily as she scrutinized me with a glare. Asked something in an unknown language. She kept talking and asking questions, or that's what I think, from the tone she used. At the end shook her head, left an ocher rag at the foot of my bed and went to the other side closing the door through which she had entered. I wore the dress with confidence and girded my waist with a piece of green cloth.

"Open up, open up, please! Open the door!" Shouted hitting and pulling a handle. I heard somebody took off the lock on the other side and soon I was in a large room, also made of wood, with a long table and benches on both sides; such as the picnic tables on a park.

I wiped the tears to see well. My feet were getting cold. Where I had been brought? When Eric found out he was going to rip their throats, and I would be his faithful audience.

There were several people in the room, the woman I had seen before and, sitting on a throne like presiding at Fangtasia, the same man who had hit me. He spoke with two other men and the woman scrutinized me with her eyes. He spoke to me and I shook my head. His talkers, who were standing around, also tried. They were human, I could hear their heads buzzing on mine, their thoughts running through their brain at full speed. But I didn't understand a word of them. For a moment I thought it was German or Dutch and that I could be in Pennsylvania, but that didn't explain their outfits.

"_¿Quis es?_"[1] She asked me. I looked at her and frowned "_¿Quis es?_" I shook my head, trying to clear it and put it in order "_¿Unde venis?. ¿Latin, scis?_"[2] I nodded at last. In high school I enrolled in Latin and Greek. Dead languages classes were empty and I didn't have to endure the horrible buzzing thoughts from the rest of my classmates, I could concentrate and got very good grades. I never thought I had a chance to use the Latin beyond words to guess in game shows.

"_Intellego_. _Sic_ ..."[3] The woman looked at the man on the throne and nodded.

"_Hoc_. _¿An_ _servus?_"[4] I tried to clear my head and she pressed on the issue. Males have huge swords knotted the belt and thought it was much better someone apparently harmless.

"_Hoc_. _Sic_. _Ego_ _sum_ _servus_[5]" She said something to the man on the throne, who nodded and waved his hand. The remaining men were relaxed and one even pulled his hand from his sword hilt. I breathed in relief.

"_¿Fugit?_"[6] She asked. I bit my lip, not knowing what to say. I'd to tell them that I'd fled, but from where? I didn't answer and that seemed to give them an answer.

They continue talking to each other, the chief stood up and held a huge knife against my neck. When Eric show up the first one to be punished would be him, that if he was lucky that I didn't get rid from them before. I looked into his eyes and shrank the air in my chest. He had a familiar resemblance with Eric: eyes, forehead and the shape of the lips that I hadn't seen due to being hidden behind the lush blond beard. He said something in his language and suddenly I thought I heard a word I had heard sometime in my vampire mouth. The woman came and pulled away with sweet and sure hand, the knife in my throat. She didn't stop to look in the eyes of the man at any time. He turned away, muttering and she looked at me with an air of superiority.

"Helga" said pointing to her chest with the palm of the hand. Then tended toward the man "Halvar".

"Sookie" I said. She tilted her head and realized that, in my capacity as declared slave must tilt even more. My gut echoed by hunger, she raised an eyebrow in a gesture very known to me, and I thought I saw Eric's nose in her, and some of his gestures. She took my arm but was interrupted by King Halvar. I think it's her husband. They said things quietly and in the end she lowered her head and nodded. I do not know why they had been talking, but until now it had seemed that she won every discussions but this. She drove me to the fire and pointed the ash, a straw broom without a handle beside the ash and a wood dustpan, then she made me an indication that made me realize that she intended me to collect the ashes extinct fires from the household. I knew how it worked. Then she took me out of the house. I was creeped out when my feet trod the cold mud around the house from which we had come out. I could see that I was in a strange town. There were many wooden houses, the bigger was that of Helga and Halvar. Everything smelled cold, sea salt, forest and wood burning from the fireplaces. There were barking dogs, extremely blond and redhead children playing, laughing and chattering women and men going to and fro.

Helga stood beside a well and waited until I focus my attention back to her. She grabbed the bucket of yew wood and metal attached to the rope down to the water and that, for its size, must be able to contain about eight liters[7] of water and with her hand indicated that I had to take out three buckets of water.

"No alimenta"[8] she said putting her hand to her mouth and making the universal gesture of eating "ad finem tripaliare"[9] So they wouldn't give me food until I pick up the ashes and take out the three buckets of water. There wasn't a heavy and long work, her intention wasn't other than to emphasize my status as a slave. If I wanted to eat, bed or protection, I would have to work. I didn't dislike. Also, I didn't understand a word of those running through her brain and that relieved me. At least while I was here until I find Eric or I find out how to get home, I will have peace.

I ate hungrily what they gave me. Goat cheese on warm bread, a piece of bacon and half grilled onion accompanied by goat's milk. As I finished my glass of milk three children came through the door. They began to shout with joy to Helga who clapped and they silenced. She approached them to me and said my name and something more. She ordered them from highest to lowest and introduced them by putting her hands on their shoulders. I stared at the medium boy and I thought I was going crazy. Somebody would have to skin me alive if that child wasn't Eric, my Eric. Helga was his mother.

"Leif" introduced Helga. He was a blond, sturdy, with a strong resemblance to his mother child. He must have been about ten years.

"Audr" She was blonde also, but not like Leif. She wore a lovely braids clasped with green ties. She came to me and took my hand. I smiled and sat her on my knees. She wouldn't have been older than five years.

"Eric" Helga said. I held out my hand and stroked his jaw tenderly. Couple of tears sled out while looking at him more closely.

He had lighter hair and darker eyes and, of course, the skin was pinker. He must haven't turned eight years.

"You are very handsome", I kissed the girl on the cheek when she started chattering, I didn't understand anything, I laughed.

"Sookie" Helga called. She motioned for me to follow and I got along with the children. She took me to a house almost adjoining the palace (that's how it should be called with the rest of comparing huts). It was a dream house, slightly sunken in the ground, all wood. It was covered by a blanket of fat grass that made it look like Tolkien's hobbits' houses. Leif opened the door and stepped inside. The children released my hands and began to play, the two boys with wooden swords and girl holding a rag doll and miniature wooden horse in front of the fire. There were several beds on one side and a table with benches around near the fireplace: copper pans, pewter pots, vases, jars and pottery utensils and knives. I saw a wooden ladder, such as painters, although not so vertical and with thicker steps, rising to a wooden platform. Upstairs was a huge bed like the one I had awakened after Halvar let me Knockout. Helga opened the trunk that lay at the foot of the bed and pulled out several wool dresses. She stuck them to my chest and then gestured to me to tell me they were for me. I wanted to protest when I saw she drew out the colorful and prettiest fabrics and shook her head, setting them apart to take them after she had show me everything.

We went down again where the children played and she led me to one side of the house, where she opened a door and showed me several bags and containers. She opened a hatch, grabbed an oil lamp and went down the hatch. We faced a cold room with ice where several foods were preserved, but mostly onions, meat and smoked fish. We went back up and she showed me the contents of the bags and vessels: oat, barley, rye, oil and wine. She opened a bag of greyish color and put some grain in my hand, then she took my arm and pulled me out to the street and we walked around the house and into the fence and inside the fenced I saw three pigs and several chickens. Helga took my hand and led me throwing grain to the birds.

"Cotidie"[10] she said. I nodded. I must feed the chickens every day. I pointed pigs and she shook her head and pointed her chest. I guess those animals were too important to be left under my care. Good, because they made me a little scared. They were black and huge, at least 150[11] kilos, the smallest.

We entered into a wooden pen in which there were three goats and a horse and various farm implements. Helga pointed out to me the straw, the watering hole that I must keep full of clean, fresh water, and the metal bucket that should be used to collect milk when I milked the goats. She handed it to me so I could teach her how I did and approaching the bench wooden animal, I placed the bucket under its udders and as I had been taught at the farm school that my grandmother sent me every year hoping it would make my life more normal, I started to get milk. She smiled, got an egg from the pile of straw where the hens rested during the night and we came back into the house when I got enough milk for dinner.

She hugged her children and returned to tell them something about me, I realized that Helga thought that I was a nice person and that I seemed a very harmless to Halvar if they left me to care for their children. She pointed at me, then pointed to the children and finally approached two fingers to her eyes, telling me that my main task was to take care and watch over the kids.

I inspected the house as soon as she was gone, examining every nook. Settled the beds as I like them and prepared things for dinner. I was beginning to doubt that the fairies had set me up. I feel good and I am not in pain, so it's possible that this is a very real dream or a hallucination that I am having after falling from stairs and break my head. In the first case, I just have to wait to wake up. If they have been fairies, I had noticed all fireplace tools are made of iron, and I bet the fairies don't like to meet them in the face. And if this is a hallucination caused by a cerebral coma, I have to just wait for Eric to come home, find me and provide his healing blood. I wake up in my bed, with the metallic taste of blood on my tongue, completely naked with my boyfriend by my side ready to make love to me. The other possibility, which I would rule out but I couldn't, is that my fall down the stairs have acted as my own private Delorian, and that it would have led me to a trip back in time (and space) and I am now in Northern Europe, probably future Sweden, at some indeterminate time between 900 and 1100 I stopped thinking about nonsense and prepared for what was living; dream or reality.

I gave the children dinner and before bedtime, I forced them to pee (for which we had to leave home) and brush their teeth (they didn't understand and I had to do it with my fingers. Eric was already showing his manners because he bit my finger and ran toward the house bending in laughter)

"Believe me you want to keep your teeth!" I yelled "You're going to need them the next thousand years."

I went back to the house and saw that they were already in bed. I approached Audr and I sang a song as she closed her eyes and slept. I found that Eric also paid attention to me and smiled.

I put a few more logs on the fire so that the heat will last all night, I stuck a thorn and I had to get it out with my teeth. I bled and stung horrors. In dreams there was no pain, and within hours I had suffered migraine, I had pricked my finger and felt the burning pain of being punch in my neck by a six-foot Viking. I inspected the children were well clothed with skins and was kissing them one by one. I smiled at the beautiful picture Audr was, and because of the nerves of checking that I, Sookie Stackhouse, was living my own Viking nightmare. The man of my life, human at the end, was only a child of eight years. I wiped a tear and kissed on the cheek to my little Eric.

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**Next chapter in 3 days I promise.**

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Tranlation of phrases in Latin and metric convetions.

[1] Who are you?

[2] Where do you come from? ¿do you know Latin?

[3] I understand. So ...

[4] This. ¿Are you a slave?

[5] This. So. I am

[6] ¿Fled?

[7] 2.113 gallons

[8] No feeding

[9]Al terminar el trabajo

[10] Daily

[11] 330.7 pounds


	3. Chapter 3

**I took a little bit longer waiting for reviews, sorry it is disappointing not to get them... I am thinking in quitting this huge project. But is up to you, if you keep sending reviews. Not only add to favorites. Please Send REVIEWS.**

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After three days of being there I realized two things: the first was that I already knew all the words related to household (such as bed, kitchen, fire, table, goat milk... etc.) which facilitated my understanding of the needs of children. The second was that those same children had not bathed in those three days.

I filled the bucket for the second time and I poured over the pot to heat the water, then I prepared a basin of wood suitable for bathing.

"To the water" I told Audr. I undressed the little girl who insisted on bathing with his carved wooden deer. I washed her hair and body with the same soap. With Eric and Leif everything was more complicated. They scrambled and rolled around until they got even dirtier, I caught Leif by the ear and Eric by the hair, and after finishing as bathed as them, I got all the accumulated grime cleaned.

My relationship with Halvar remained fairly distant, but in his eyes and on his lips, even in his voice, often saw Eric, which I made me easy to distrust and sulk him as being in a good mood. Helga treated me well, I think she likes to talk with me in Latin (and I'm not great conversing in that language). She was a cultured woman, but I haven't asked how she came to speak the language of the ancient Romans. I advanced in leaps and bounds in the Nordic language they used and already managed to shout and scold the children quite comfortably.

The days were getting increasingly heavy, the fog leave late in the morning and came early at the afternoon and moisture soaked everything. The waves hit the cliffs so hard it was weird not seeing the hard and black stones crumble due the power of the sea. The anguish of the climate seemed to have made the rest of town dam. Many of the women had left their good mood and wandered thoughtful, taciturn and silent around the town few streets. They came and went to the port, and waiting for the sea to give us a truce from the fog and moisture to disperse. I looked forward to the winter came, because at least the cold ice and snow would replace this cold that penetrated to the bone.

On the seventh day of thick fog, vicious humidity and wrathful sea, some of the women invited me to go with them to the forest to collect firewood due the fireplaces devoured fires hungrier than ever. I took the horse and hooked a small trailer. I get Audr and Eric up and cover them to the eyes with two wolf skins. Leif led the horse down the road in the company of other cars and the other women. They talked about their husbands, their sons and their brothers, and wondered if they would be back soon and... or if they would. The boats were gone for weeks, before I arrived, loaded with men from the village. The anguish of women wasn't due only to the uncertainty of never seeing their men, but to the fact that if they didn't return triumphant from sea, provided with tuna, cod, whale oil and other food, their children will suffer hungry and cold in winter and some don't even overcome. I turned on the car and I rummaged Eric blonde hair, understanding at last the hard times he had had to live as a human. We were stopping as we found good wood for fires.

Eric and Audr collected twigs, while Leif and I managed to get some good sized logs. Some trees had fallen because of the wind whipping us at night, but they were green wood useless for us. And the dry wood of fallen trees there for some time, was wet because of the bloody mist, but it was better than nothing and Leif and I managed to catch three whole trunks, that would serve us to spend the next few days, while the green ones dried by the fire and the expected snow arrive.

I massaged my tired neck and I wore a white sepia linen dress to sleep. I wore nothing underneath and I was very comfortable as well. I picked up the iron plate and inserted within a few embers of the fire to warm the foot of my bed. I got into it and lay down in the center, waiting for my little companions decided to get out of their beds and sleep with me. As always, the first to arrive was the little Audr who snuggled against my chest. Eric hugged my back and Leif followed, lying next to his sister. I did not sleep until the three of them were by my side.

Within a fortnight I began to handle myself with the language quite fluently. I've always heard that to learn a language is best to be among natives who don't speak otherwise. Well how right is who said it! The children and Helga helped me a lot. Often watching Leif do homework while he was showing me the name of things. Eric also liked to tell his life and made it with some understandable words, pictures and gestures, to which he put names. Audr taught me many things from the home, pointing with their fingers the names of the things she was seeing. I think we are learning to speak both at the same time.

Despite the harshness of life, I was happy to be where I was, although I missed my vampire. I never went to bed at night without being tired. I always did tired. Tired of working around the house and dealing with the kids. Leif was a sun, and although he was mischief, as the largest he struggled to work. Audr was adorable, she barely made me work with her rag dolls and wooden toys. Eric was the worst: Sometimes I was tempted to look him in the neck to see if it had a 666 birthmark announcing my future vampire was actually the antichrist. Not that he was bad, it was like having to take care of five children over the account. While everyone went to bed exhausted, he still had the energy to ask for stories, annoy his brother or putting bugs on Audr's bed. God, how I loved him.

I did not know how long I had been slept when a strange sound woke me up. In the distance, the powerful sound of a horn could be heard. Leif and Eric woke up startled. Down in the street, a stir was heard. I lit a candle and walked to the window. The women ran towards the port. The horn sounded again, this time accompanied by the sound of other horns. My heart jumped breast because it was not unusual to suffer attacks from other Viking villages, and although I hadn't expected and neither experienced one, I knew that the horn announcing an attack could sound at any time. I had to put the kids safe.

Audr rubbed her eyes and asked what happened. Eric and Leif uncovered and helped her up, taking her out of bed. They went down hurriedly and opened the front door of the house.

"Is father" Leif shouted.

"Father?" I asked.

"Is Father, Audr!" Eric grabbed his sister by her little hand and he inlaid her in a thick leather "Come on, Sookie. Boats arrive!"

I covered my shoulders with one of the skins which lay in bed and followed the kids to the street. The women ran to the port joyful, shouting the names of their husbands or their children, happy to see them again and distressed at the prospect they didn't come on the boats.

Helga and Halvar were in port as well as the rest of the people. However, all made way for the children, who were placed next to the chiefs and me behind them.

"Over there," the watchman said. The waves were strong and often confused me with the sound of the keel of a ship breaking water. After about two minutes, a ghostly figure appeared out of the mist over our heads and many of the people who were there couldn't suppress an "oh". The head and neck of a huge sea dragon in black had just emerged from the white fog. Seconds later, it followed the rest of the boat. More ghostly heads of mythological animals arrived in port. Women began shouting names, and from the deck, the voices of men were heard responding to them calls: they had returned. They started down the dock. It wasn't very different than the scenes that can be seen today at airports, ports and train or buses stations. Beloved people returning home.

Helga, Halvar and children looked on deck for someone. Finally, Helga put her hands to her mouth to cover a cry of happiness, stepped forward and extended his arms towards the figure climbed out of the boat.

The air left my lungs and I thought my heart would leave my chest trough the mouth. He wore the long beard also mustache. He was thinner than normal, but he was the same blond, strong and wonderful as ever.

"Son" Halvar hugged Eric and gave him a loud pat on the back.

"Father."

"Eric" Helga hugged him and danced with him embrace. After they separated, she stroked his beard and held his cheeks, then kiss him on the mouth "Son" She hug him again as he returned the gesture with love and children pulled the chain in his pants waiting for the moment he pays attention to them. He separated from his mother and bent, full height, to embrace Leif, Eric and Audr that hung from his neck.

"Unload the boat" Halvar shouted. Eric stand up with Audr in his arms, while Leif and small Eric threw a flood of questions. Helga grabbed his arm, the arm that was not holding the girl, and together they walked toward the palace. I stood there, standing motionless, staring at the man I loved being Human walking with his human family. My heart was a rush of emotions and my head one of thoughts. A firm and comforting hand on my back pulled me from my inner thoughts. Halvar gently pushed me forward, urging me to walk home, following the rest of the family.


	4. Chapter 4

**Translator's note:**

**From here I will write Erik for the kid, and Eric for the adult. O.K. to prevent from mixing up.**

**I am trying to do my best in the translation, but sometimes is hard to figure out what the author is trying to say, because she jumps from present to past and forward in the same paragraph.**

**Every dialog is supposed to be in old Norse, except the ones in italics.**

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Those who recently returned sat at the long tables at Helga's and Halvar's house, while the other men who had remained in the village, due to illness, youth, old age or because simply it was their duty to stay in the village this time to defend it in case of attack, bombed the sailors with questions.

The women were fooling around with them and served them cold beer and mead in abundance, smoked tuna, boiled eggs, and roast beef. Audr was sitting on Eric's lap, Helga was on his right and his son Erik on his left, while Leif and Halvar sat opposite. I was standing behind him.

Eric had told something about a group of whales and a tuna's school that almost made them sink, and also about a village on France's coast which they had looted and from where they bring wine, olive oil, almonds, garlic and fruits (and a doll for Audr).

"Father, have you seen...?" Audr asked when Eric finished telling his story. I did not understand the last word of the girl's question. But I figured, by the response of my Viking, that his daughter had asked him if he had seen dragons in their journey. Eric made up a fantastic story and his sons didn't stop staring at him. Me neither. He was very different, with very long hair, beard and mustache. I was so used to him always the same, that I didn't thought it was him at all.

"Sookie" Helga called me. Eric turned and fixed his eyes on me for the first time "help the other women to serve men."

"Okay dokey" I said avoiding the gaze of the man who wasn't my vampire anymore, but a Viking.

"Serve my son" Halvar commanded me. I nodded embarrassed and I gave Eric a big jug of beer and a roasted rabbit. When Eric drank from the jug I stopped the air in my throat and when he bit the rabbit pulling a piece of meat from the leg, my pulse stopped and I whine like a fool, again. I never thought I would look him like this. He was gorgeous eating. He took another sip of beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. That gesture that in any other would be repugnant, in him I found it cute.

While he ate, I heard Halvar and Helga explain Eric who I was, the circumstances in which it had appeared and that I was taking care of his children.

"Does she take good care of you?" Eric asked his children.

"Yes" Young Erik replied "but she forces us to bath every day, father" Eric and Halvar laughed and Leif joined to his little brother, complaints.

"Well, I won't change that" Eric said after his laughter had gone out. Audr had fallen asleep in his arms and Erik began to rub his eyes.

"Let's go home", I put my hand on the little one's shoulder "Is late."

"I'm not tired" Erik said while yawning, I smiled. I bent down and kissed him on the cheek "Let's go, Leif, you too"

"Leave Audr here with me" Eric said when I went to pick up the little girl from his arms "I'll lie down her later", I took off the robe that was over my shoulders and wrapped the girl with it, so she wouldn't get cold. I took advantage of this and while I was settling the clothes, I touch Eric's shirt and lightly touch his skin. His flesh was warm and heart skipped a beat.

I lay in bed with Little Erik when I returned home. I shivered at the thought of lying down in the big bed such as had been doing till now. Where he slept.

Eric came to his house very late, must be close to dawn. He put the little girl to sleep in her bed and for a while he sat in front of the fire, staring at it. He left the house, went to the woodshed looking for timber and put a log in the hearth when he came in again. He took off his fur coat and left the sword from his belt. He hung from the wooden beams the various knives that he was taking out from different hideouts between his clothing and his body. He went out for a second and came back in with a bucket of water, poured it into the cauldron which he had placed over the fire. I saw him cleaning his sword and knives with grease. He picked up the steaming water from the chimney and went out through the door. The birds were singing and the day seemed to be cloudless. I carefully got up and had a look out through a crack in the door. Eric took another bucket from the well and left it on a wooden barrel. He had his back to me. He took off his boots, woolen tunic and trousers and stood completely naked. He took the bucket of cold water and threw it over him. Just then the sun came out and the first rays lit up his skin, tears welling up in my eyelashes and it gave me the chills. He soaped quickly with little attention to the hair and then threw over him the bucket of hot water. I wiped my cheeks when he took a cotton cloth and dried his arms, body and hair while looking at the horizon. The sunlight streamed down his face and chest. He got clean clothes, picked things from the floor and went into the house, where he caught me in front of the fire. I had been so absorbed last night and this morning I had not even seen the crates and barrels that had been unloaded from the boat and into the house.

"Sookie, right?"

"Yes."

"Set up breakfast for my children" he commanded. I was about to show him my tongue. But he had his hair soaked and the shirt sticking to his body. He still had the most wonderful neck in the world... probably the most wonderful neck ever. I wanted to jump on him and kiss him all over, lay him on the bed and see how tough the wooden platform was. But I just nodded and went toward the corral.

While milking the black and white goat I saw him going up the hill that was behind the fence of the house and beyond, outside the fence that surrounded the town. There was a lot of movement to be so early in the morning.

Eric came when we had almost finished breakfast. He sat with us after stoke the home fires.

"Do you know how to treat meat and fish?" he asked me.

"What?"

"Do you know how to preserve them with smoke and salt?" I shook my head and he chuckled "Then you are useless" I looked at him surprised at the harshness of his tone and his words. "Leif, Erik... we have to rush to preserve all fish and meat that comes in the ship's storage. If we let it rot we won't have anything to eat this winter.

"Can I help? Audr said. Eric smiled and stroked a braid.

"Don't talk nonsense, you're afraid to catch fish and you always end up letting it fall to the ground. Like when you let that hake to be swallowed by a dog!" Leif scolded her.

"Audr sing for us and bring us something to drink" Eric defended her. "Okay?"

"What about me?" I asked in a childlike voice. Everyone at the table turned to look at me, as if they had forgotten I was there. Eric sighed and slouched in his seat.

"Start giving me breakfast" I snorted and looked at him with hatred. He hadn't changed even a little bit in a thousand years.

Unbearable jerk. I got up and I put him a big bowl of milk with porridge, a piece of smoked bacon and a dry herring. Okay, yes, I hated him for being a jerk Viking, but in a thousand years I fall for him like crazy! I had to help him gain the weight with which I'll end up knowing him in Shreveport. I couldn't let that he come to me he skinny and scrawny.

I hated being a stupid, in love and softy woman, because when I saw him throwing the food into his mouth my eyes filled with tears again, as the previous night. He made several pleasure noises while chewing, and I felt a knot in my stomach and a tingle down even further, because they were very similar or the same as emitted when he bit me and sucked my blood. And he always did it when we were having sex.

"There are things to accommodate" he said between bites "The trunks are filled with fabrics, utensils, tools and other things. It was a good trip. Don't touch the barrels and the oil pots, they are heavy and could fall. I'll keep them when I have time tonight. Do you know how to sew?" I know I blushed. Why I couldn't do anything he asked? He shook his head and snorted again.

"I brought furs and fabrics. You've grown a lot, Leif, and those pants will be so short at the time when it start to snow."

"I have also grown" Audr said. Eric smiled.

"And I brought you some beautiful dresses and a new doll" her face brightened and she jumped to her dad. Eric continued eating with Audr now ensconced in his lap. She chattered about the puppies Dalla's dog had bred (Dalla better known to me as 'the woman of the geese') which had been born two days ago. Eric silenced her occasionally by giving her a spoonful of porridge or a mouthful of herring.

"Can I have a puppy, pleeease?"

"We'll see," Eric said while covered with skins to go outside. He and Leif headed for the boats while Erik hitched the horse to the cart. Half an hour later they returned laden with the proportion of fish that belonged to Eric. Erik downloaded as big a barrel of salt that scared me to think that, if it fall over him, he would be crushed. Eric and Leif brought pieces of oak, my future vampire complaining because there wasn't enough wood.

"It had been cold" I defended myself "We spent a lot of wood, but recently went out to collect more."

"Where's the ox?" he asked, while hammering to sink a stake into the ground. He was kissable hammer in hand, beard and all.

"It died a few weeks after you left" His eldest son said. Eric cursed. Hit another stick, and bent it to the first one, and then repeated the process on the other side.

"I hoped it to live at least one more winter" he lamented.

"What should we do?"

"At this moment, bring me these branches" Eric said me. I obeyed and he put them in the structure that had stood before, putting together a sort of grill on high.

"We recently went to collect firewood with the horse" I told him.

"My horse is a war horse" he informed me indignantly and looking as if I was stupid.

"O.K. But, can it replace the ox?" Eric looked at me like my neck just grown a second head.

"It isn't to pull the plow or the cart, woman, but to cut heads" he spat.

"_You ... stupid Viking!_" I cursed him in English. Everyone looked at me and Eric guffawed. I got very blushed "_Moron_" I whispered. He didn't seemed to care…

"I don't know what you've said, but I can imagine. I will figure a way to handle things without the ox" He calm us down "And my horse let you tied it to cart?" I nodded. He finished fixing the wood under the wooden structure he had put together, "You must have very strong hands to have succeeded."

"It tried to give me a kick" Leif said him "But she got it right away. And it didn't even protested" I helped Audr to jump a puddle of water. Eric picked her up and sat her on a high step like the one on a ladder. He approached me, he was so close, if I deep aspired surely my breasts rub his.

"I hope you're not softening it with your woman kindness" he winked at me and smiled. I showed him my tongue and he laughed out loud. He was thinking that I smelled good and had great tits. I pulled my chest out and coughed to get his attention. He looked at me and then turned his attention back on the job.

"Let's place the fishes" Eric said. Leif began to accommodate them and Erik helped him "why don't you sing a song, Audr?" The girl stood up and began to sing what sounded like a nursery rhyme. She asked me to get her down of the step where her father had put her and as she set foot on the ground, began to jump and dance around her brothers and Eric.

"Can I help?"

"Do you have anything else to do?" He asked me stumbling while trying to prevent a fish slipping from his hands and hit the ground.

"I have to grind oats for bread, but…"

"Then go to grind oats" Eric told me. He narrowed his eyes because the sun was hitting his eyes directly.

I held back, so I didn't reach out and kiss his eyelids "You smell too good to mess it with the fish" He smiled and the sun brightened his perfect teeth. Leif gave him a killer look, but when I tried to get into his thoughts he was already thinking about what he was doing. Their mother had been dead less than a year, and it shouldn't be easy for them to see their father flirting with another woman. I didn't want to hurt them, but wanted to be with Eric with all my strength. After he shaved, of course.

Eric started the fire and the smoke soon began working in the fish. Audr kept singing and playing while Leif and Erik buried some fish in salt to preserve them, my future husband put together a new structure to smoke the fish that remained to be preserved.

I kept the fireplace on, while grinding a few handfuls of oats, enough to make bread for the day.

Helga came to visit us at noon and I was intrigued watching her and Leif spoke apart, away from Eric. I was worried because Leif pointed in my direction and protested openly about something unknown to me.

We ate the same bread I had just done, with chunks of fresh grilled fish and boiled octopus. Helga told her son to follow her to the back and chatted there for a while, I suspect, about me. Did Leif had said something and now they will get me out of that house? The thought gave me a lump in my throat.

However, Helga left after that without saying anything else.

Eric spent the afternoon in the cold room accommodating the vessels of oil. He put away a gleaming ceramic pot that must have weighed about twelve kilos[1] and was filled with fragrant and dark honey. He took off his shirt because it was hot inside the house and almost gives me a fit. He went out to stoke the fire and cause more smoke and began to chop wood. I bit my lip as I peered through the window hidden. Drops of sweat fell from the tip of the nose and chin to the floor. Sweat ran down his back to get lost in his waistband, low enough to reveal his glorious dimples. Before I realized what I was doing had my hand between my legs. Dalla 'the woman of the geese' awaked me from my private fantasy, she approached to Eric and they were talking about the piece of fence near our homes and that offered little resistance and about the puppies her sheep-dog had. Eric wanted one to collect the chickens in the yard and to keep the geese, he thought to buy in the livestock fair to be held in spring in a nearby town.

We dined outdoors porridge with honey, and Eric had dinner with a piece of bacon and oat bread with roasted parsnip. We also ate some roasted chestnuts on the fire before going to bed. Audr insisted on staying with her father, but my Viking didn't let her. He would stay up all night to stoke the fire and the smoking process went well. I wanted to put a mead to warm him, although near the fire was not bad, but Eric was afraid that the alcohol made him sleepy. The kids went to bed and went to keep him company for a while, I felt comfortable with him overnight. I was engrossed watching him stare into the fire, it was almost like in those times when my vampire gets lost thinking or staring into space, watching the world spin around and change while he remains motionless and unchanging. But there was a big difference in his shining eyes and the way his breath turned to steam in contact with the cold atmosphere. He began to sing a song quietly, it talked about Freia and a pastor, and the Asgard, the Olympus of Viking gods. I never heard him humming and at first I was surprised and I smiled; but only until I got lost in his voice and in the history of the song. I felt his hand shake his shoulder shortly after.

"Go to sleep or you'll get sick," I had fallen asleep, "lie down on the big bed. I will not go."

"But..."

"Go" he forced me. I didn't want to leave him alone. He had arrived at dawn from his long, painful and eventful trip, he hadn't slept and had made unloading the ship and bring the groceries home, and then he had spent the morning and afternoon working just stopping to eat a little "Go" He insisted. I obeyed reluctantly. He got up and proceeded to flip the fish. I went to bed and fell asleep immediately. I heard him get into a couple of occasions to put wood on the fireplace to keep the house warm.

I woke up with the tip of the nose and ears cold, a dreadful feeling, if you ask me. I thought Eric maybe had slept and had neglected both home and outside fire. I heard a noise downstairs and I looked out the little round window that opened on where his big bed was. I saw nothing, not even Eric in front of the fire, but now that he had human needs that didn't mean anything, especially because the smoke was still rising strongly over the net of fish. I went to hear a dry blow, I went downstairs and I looked out the window for a better look and I discovered the reason for the noise: Eric and Dalla did it against the wooden wall of the house.

I put my hand to my mouth and I turned around closing heavily my eyes, trying to clear my mind of what I had seen. But another blow against the wood and a moan reminded it to me vividly. I grabbed the wooden ladder to climb back up, but I felt my hand burning. I couldn't sleep upstairs in his bed. I staggered to the bed and lay beside Erik, the Erik that for weeks I thought it was my Eric. Then I began to mourn.

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[1] 26 pounds 7.2876 ounces


	5. Chapter 5

I got up I was feeling fatal. I didn't feel like doing anything and it was Erik who had to wake me up. I covered up with a skin to the head and pout.

"Are you sick? Shall I call father?"

"No! I wake up, I wake up" I stood and rubbed my eyes. Lucky there were no mirrors, I felt my dark circles should reach my navel. I did the tasks like a robot and I wanted to spit Eric in his filthy face of happiness.

"Erik, Leif, You finish sewing the fish" He said. He had been sewing the smoked fish, so we could hang them and then keep them that way. I guess he haven't asked me because I said I didn't know how to sew "I need a few hours' sleep" he confessed.

"Yes, you must be so tired from working last night," I blurted. I poured some cold porridge oats and I sat down to make braids to Audr, who was immersed in her dolls. Apparently, the dragon kidnapped the prince and the princess was trying to rescue him. She was all a Viking. Eric ate his cold porridge without complaint, then climbed into bed and I saw him fall like a log on the bed.

Me and the kids went to the woods to pick raspberries and Leif found near a log a lot of mushrooms we collected and put aside, because although they were absolutely sure they were edible, I wasn't.

I roasted some onions and boiled some eggs for food. I thought about the possibility of awakening Eric to eat something, but I thought he needed to rest and also he already had enough.

I had never done cakes with flour that were not wheat, but it was all I had. I beat three eggs freshly laid and I made a mental note to track the red tail hen (it had spent five days without laying an egg), I added rye flour, and a block of butter that I had left to melt near the fire. I put a bit of yeast which I used to do the daily bread and which I elaborated myself and I added several tablespoons of honey, I knew Eric had brought sugar form sugarcane from his last trip, but I didn't want to get to rummage through the things I the cold room. I was oiling the container in which I was going to make the cake when somebody knocked at the door.

Dalla, the bitch of the geese, greeted me with a smile that I not returned. I discovered in her thoughts that she had gone to the corral with the hope of meeting with Eric but had only seen the kid.

"Is your master in the house?"

"He's resting. He could not sleep after returning from the trip because yesterday we had a lot of work smoking the fish. You'd realize" She smiled and thought that last night he didn't looked tired. I smiled nervously and I imagine I shut the door in her face of... of... she was pretty!

"The door to my house doesn't close properly. I think it's a hinge, the top one. I would fix it, but I don't have tools. Ask Eric if he wouldn't mind checking it out. I'll pay" She smiled. I can imagine how you're going to pay. To another dog with that bone. The history of clogged sink is very old, older than you, and have a few years.

I saw her carrying a basket. I heard Audr screaming and ran out of the house. Erik had just put a toad in her wool dress by the neck. I took the poor toad out from the scruff of my girl and gave Erik a slap on the ass, he walked away splitting in laughter. Leif gave him a slap on the scruff when he passed by.

"I have brought apples" Dalla shouted to the three of them "Eat them grilled, they are delicious grilled" The children were thrilled, Audr stop whining as Dalla handed the basket to her, she ran to the house and Erik followed her. Leif went to clean the barn "give me the basket back when they finish, and tell Eric that knock on my door when he gets up," she said when we were alone. I returned to the house and gave back his toad to Erik, then I beat him in the ass again because he touched food with dirty hands. The boy protested a second, but then rested his head on my arm and gave me a sad puppy look.

"Don't annoy your sister" I said "and wash your hands. You'll see what I'm preparing. Go and wash the apples" he went out and soaked the apples, sinking them and playing with them. He got them out from the water, put them in Audr's apron, to dry them, and then he washed his hands with soap. He entered and I placed the apples on a tray and put them in the oven below to where my bun was baking at a good time. I bent down, I pointed my cheek, and Erik gave me a loud kiss "Go and play, go."

Eric got up when the sun was falling. Apples and cake aromatized the house and the children did nothing but watch the oven with intensity and annoyance as if they expected that way the bun cook faster.

I took out the cake and the four Northman followed the scent like hyenas pursuing their prey.

"It can't be eaten until it is cool."

"Jo" the four of them expressed. I laughed.

"And where did the apples came from?" Eric asked.

"Dalla brought them for the children."

"Very kind of her" Eric said while ignoring my orders, pinched the cake a bit, and ate it. He was worse than the kids.

"Very kind" Helga had the happy idea of appearing before I jumped to the jugular of her child to make clear what I thought was very unseemly. She came with some brown wool yarn rolled between her elbows. She took my arm and guided me to the loom that until I had arrived, had been covered with a layer of dust. Set one of the threads on a loom and prompted me to imitate. I guess the time to learn to knit had come.

"I need to borrow your mule, mother. We have to plow next week and sow the week after or the autumn's snows won't let us.

"We need the mule too" His mother informed him "it would be better if you ask Olga Red or Freira. They won't sow this year. Olga is alone since her husband died two months ago and her children are still too young to help her with such drudgery and they would probably waste a lot of grain sowing and would end reaping just a little. But she has two oxen. Good animals, if you ask me. You could use her animals in exchange of a percentage of the crop. Would you like me to deal with her?

"Yes, please" Helga nodded and fixed a thread that I had misplaced "do you want some of the bread that Sookie has made, mother?"

"Sure, but I hoped she would offer it to me."

"But it isn't cool enough! I was planning to tell you..." She laughed and grab up the piece Eric had offered her "And it is not bread is a cake" Eric gave me a piece too, I tore it from his hands, cranky.

"It taste great. Can I bring a piece to Halvar?" She asked. I nodded and she smiled. When she finished her piece, we started sewing lesson.

"Oh, Eric... Dalla came while you were sleep to ask a favor. She asked me to tell you that she wanted you to go to her house"

Helga looked at his son and raised an inquiring eyebrow. I wish I could do it too. However, Helga seemed pleased that he had complied with her orders and Eric, annoyed.

"Well, well... I see you have grab very good mushrooms. They are delicious in a boiled rabbit stew. Are you okay, Sookie?

"Yes," I replied, although her question puzzled me. I tried to delve into her mind, but she was thinking about the use she would give to the fabric I was making. Helga left and her son accompanied her out. I continued with the loom until the time I started to make dinner. I heard a hammering and I looked out to see Eric hitting something on Dalla's door a few hundred meters away. It shouldn't be a lot of work because it didn't take more than two minutes to fix what had to be fixed, and Dalla invited him to go inside to "properly thank" him and two of them were lost behind the door.

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If you don´t leave a review, and only add to favorites or follow my story is like spank my butt and running away.


	6. Chapter 6

The next two weeks were like hell. Dalla gave one of the puppies to Audr and children fell at her feet. Each day she brought us apples or varied compotes and Eric spend a lot of time between her legs thanking her. The idiot couldn't notice that Dalla didn't care a crap about his children. She thought she had enough with hers.

Although we could barely leave the house because of the moist and rain, there was much work to do within the home and I almost was going on with the housework. I kept busy grinding flour, rationing food, preparing meals, cleaning, knitting, playing with the children blind man's buff or what's the time Mr. Wolf. I liked to sneak into their thoughts and discover that although they liked Dalla, they continued preferring me.

I finished scrubbing the floor (Eric had been impressed when he saw a mop that I devised and mounted myself, but I guess the cleaning seemed such a small task that he never even asked or said any kind of surprise or admiration about my expertise inventor) and went out to shoot the water. Eric and Dalla were on one side of the house, he stroked a curled lock of her red hair and she laughed like a fool and he gave her a playful slap on the arm. I threw the dirty water to their feet.

"Oh! Woe!" Eric jumped trying to avoid it.

"Hey, you watch out" cried Dalla.

"Oh sorry, I haven't seen you. I was engaged in a song and the work. Don't we have to prepare the grain for sowing, Eric?" I could "hear" the curses from Dalla about me, she thought I was insignificant because I was a slave, but pretty enough to pose a temptation. She had been a widow almost a year and Eric was a good bite. He owned good and abundant land, one of the best farms in the village, he was a skilled sailor, an extraordinary warrior, an exceptional lover, and was the future head of the village. It was a shame, according to her, he had burden of his children. I hated her with all my being.

Eric went to set the last points of its agreement with Red Olga about the oxen. The kids and I ate a broth made with hare bones that were lefts over from the morning, a parsnip and withered carrot that remained in home and some bread. It was not much, but they had a good evening snack and it was hot. I made sure that when Eric arrived, he ate everything cold. I don't think he deserves any better. He warmed his own bowl, knowing by now that I left him the cold meals and dinners on purpose, and he ended up eating for dinner a jumble of bread crumbs without any broth. Audr hummed as she put ribbons in her doll's hair, Leif and Erik were playing a board game that I think is similar to chess.

"Tomorrow we'll go to the field, we'll spend the day sowing. Set food for all of us for a couple of days. We'll need all hands available" Eric said.

"Will Dalla come with us? I asked sarcastically.

"Enough!" the kids all jumped and looked at him with fear "I realize you do not like her, but you're not who..." Audr rose from the ground and hugged my legs.

"I ask if I should set food for her too" Seeing his daughter calm him a little.

"Just will be the five of us" he continued swallowing his cold soups like I was eating toads. After dinner he went to prepare the seeds for the next day. We were going to plant barley and rye and some oats, then we would collect in the summer when it was ripe. I lay in bed that he had prepared for me two days after arriving, so I didn't have to sleep with the kids, if I didn't wanted, and I was glad to see that he didn't leave home.

We left the next day before dawn. I grabbed Audr and wrapped her in a lot of skins and I put her to sleep near her brothers, who were seated between the bags and farm implements in the car. Eric had tied the oxen to the cart even before I had woke up, he guided them to the edge of town by foot and there he went up by my side. He guided the oxen with a birch twig in his hand. I smiled at the thought that he should have done something not very different while leading a bull as an offering to the maenad.

"You seem happy" He told me. I smiled. Sure I was. I was next to him and Dalla was in her house.

"I am. I like to work" Eric giggled "By the way, about Dalla..."

"I told you yesterday that you have nothing to say on that."

"Yes I have" Eric looked surprised at my boldness and my tone.

"I think you don't know your place, woman."

"I think the one who doesn't know is you," I spat "Helga left me in the care of your children when you weren't here. And if you do something that can hurt them, is mine business also," And you are supposed to be drooling over me and not her, I thought.

"I'm not stupid. I know that Dalla doesn't care about my children, or even cares about hers."

"So ... I cannot understand it."

"They are not her children for real, they are her husband."

"No, I meant, if you know how she is, why you are still with her..." Eric laughed. I wish I had the courage to put my hand on his throat and get his uvula out of his mouth like in a cartoon.

"You haven't looked at her very well" Sure I had looked at her. If we were in Louisiana in the twenty-first century she would be only one more fat size 44 woman. But apparently, in this age and time she was very sexy. And her red, loose, bright and sharply defined, despite not using conditioner or a mask curls and her marble white skin, despite not using anti-wrinkle, and her plump heart shaped lips despite the absence of the lip gloss and her stupid blue eyes and her long eyelashes though not wearing mascara also seemed to be the hottest thing in the world. I was so pissed "you are jealous?" I snorted "you are not that bad" I wish you to be struck by lightning and be fried right now. I got out of the car and started walking beside the oxen "You'll get tire"

I pout "What are you thinking?"

"In put you one of this ox horns in the ass" Eric twisted laughing. He let go the bridle, went down the carriage laughing, took me like a sack of potatoes while I kick him in the back (he gave me a pat on the ass) and I put me on board again.

Eric lit a fire at the moment we arrived to the sowing field. I put the pots on the floor and helped the boys to tie the oxen. They were formidable animals. Eric was placed next to an animal to put the yoke and from the other side, I noticed that my chin barely reached the back of the animal. He fixed down the plow with a wooden hammer (I think I have already said how handsome he is hammer in hand) and then jumped on top of the wood. He put up to his three children, who were with laughter when they herded bulls, and he gave a few grains to put in my apron for sowing with him.

The animals began to walk and lift the earth, they had troubles starting, but once they didn't stopped again. I could hear them mooing for the effort, no one whipped them, the breed and commitment to move forward was pushing them. The children jumped up wood to get the metal delve into the earth and stir it better. I was spreading the seeds and Eric, with a hoe in wood and metal, hid the seeds.

We stopped for lunch a few minutes. We ate some smoked herring on oil bread.

"Leif" I called "Have you seen the pigeon's nest that was by the road?" The child nodded "Bring them to me and I will make a delicious soup to eat. Now go" Leif run with Erik behind him.

"I want to go too!" Audr protested as she began the race with her short steps.

"No, you stay here" I stopped her "See those twigs? Pick them up and throw them into the fire. But be careful not to touch it, huh?" I gave her a kiss and rub cleaned a little amount of mud from the cheek. Eric and I continued our job until the children returned.

"There were two eggs and I've gobbled them" Leif said.

"He didn't give a taste" Erik complained.

"You must share, Leif. What you've done is very bad," I said.

"But I'm the one that has left the skin climbing up to the tree" And he showed me a scratch that he had get from bark of the trunk which went from the elbow to the wrist "Look, look, what pigeons I have brought you" he said and handed me the two poor pigeons with twisted neck.

"Come I clean you the blood" I dipped a cloth in warm water and cleaned his wound carefully. He tried to be the tough guy and don't protest because Erik was waiting to laugh at him and I blew his wound so that it doesn't hurt too much. We pluck and clean the pigeons and I started to make dinner while the children helped their father. I didn't want to think about how Eric kidneys would be and how tired he would be, so I poured a jug of mead and approached him.

"Here," I said. He gulped. I was engrossed in the rhythm of his nut up and down the throat, the beads of sweat that were lost in his tunic's neck, in the way that a few drops of liquor fell from his lips.

"Thank you."

"You need a shave."

"I like to wear my hair, beard and mustache long" I smiled: a Viking.

"I'd like you more" I take the jug from him and went back to make food. I opened pigeons and wiped inside, cast them into the boiling water and added salt. I put a frying pan, I poured oil Eric had looted in France and four cloves of garlic, I fried oat bread I had left made the night before and I got it out when it was browned, also removed the pan from the heat.

When the sun was high, top, took out the pigeons from the broth, cleaned the flesh and left the bones apart for another broth. I mixed the oil and garlic with the broth and meat without bones, and I started to warm up again, I broke two eggs when it began to boil and finally added the croutons.

The sun had already begun to go down when I called them to come and eat. Eric put a bucket of water and some hay to the steers while I was serving dishes, warning children to be careful not to burn. I served a giant plate to Eric who took it with both hands and sat down on a stone. He sniffed and looked at his children, usually talkative, quiet and eating with delight.

"As pigs that just got their food" He said to the kids and laughed.

"Don't tell them these things. Is it good?"

"A lot" Leif answered me with his mouth full. Erik chewed on both cheeks and Audr ate more slowly, but because I was giving her. I didn't want her to burn.

"Can I ear or I have to wait until its cold?" Eric asked me with a smirk he wasn't reproaching anything, he was just having fun.

"Eat it, eat now, it's hot." We ate between smiles and sounds of gastronomic pleasure. I did between spoonfuls to small Audr. The three men ate two dishes and only a little left over Audr and I ate. We continue to work hard, but more animated. Audr we sang songs and I already got to know me, I accompanied her. They laughed at me because I didn't sing very well, and I swore to them that mine thing was to dance, and Eric told me, I had to prove it.

We stopped working when the sun began to set. Eric nailed a pair of thick branches on the ground few minutes before the darkness of the night was done. I helped him take over a few woolens and some skins and put a bed of dry straw inside. We were exhausted and ate little: grilled onions and a slide of bacon. The kids went to bed and stayed a while admiring the stars. The moon would be full soon and I had good visibility. Eric approached the animals to the fire and tied them to the cart. The eyes began to cry me and started to yawn.

"I'm going to sleep. Do not you come?" I asked. He must be exhausted, but still staring at the fire.

"It's a tempting invitation, but I stay here" He smiled and motioned me with his head for me to go to sleep. He leaned back against the rock on which he had sat for dinner, he covered his head with a woolen cloth and skin above it. He closed his eyes and sighed when falling asleep. I approached him and kissed him on the forehead and on the tip of the nose. I noticed that underneath the layers of skin the handle of his sword glittered and by his side he had prepared his bow and arrows.

I woke up with a frost face. I heard wolves howling in the distance and I got chills. Got out of bed and saw Eric, he was in the same position I had left him when I had gone into the tent.

I looked into the trees trying to guess whether something moving through the logs.

"AH!" I turned suddenly and I bumped into Eric, who had caught my arm and scared me to death.

"What are you doing awaked?"

"I... I heard the howls and... and..." the ox snorted uneasily by the sounds of wolves, startled me and I grabbed his arm.

"Wolves do not approach men, they know they stand to lose."

"No with me" I said thinking about Alcide. Eric laughed. He brushed a strand of hair from my face and I felt his warm breath on my face. His beard tickled my neck.

"Go back to bed" He was going to kiss me, or I was going to kiss him. It did not matter. The ox was removed and grabbed strong the fabric on his chest, taking another jump. He chuckled.

"Sookie?" Audr little voice brought us out of our moment.

"What's happening, sunshine?" she went out rubbing one of her little eyes and dragging her doll "Come here before you catch cold" I opened the robe I had on and I pulled her against my chest "Are you afraid the wolves?" She shook her head.

"Only the very large ones" She confessed "You are not going to kill little wolves, right?" she asked Eric.

"Of course not. Come, go back inside."

"What if they enter the tent and eat me" Audr asked.

"They will not. Because I sit at your feet and it may not happen."

"Okay, but do not kill puppies."

"Of course not", he pushed us inside with soft but authoritative hand. I stepped aside, leaving Audr and Erik between Leif and me. Eric stoked the fire and sat down at the opening that was the entrance of the tent, as he had promised. He stood there, wrapped in furs, sword in hand. Audr fell asleep in a second. A new howl startled me and I felt Eric's hand slid under the covers, he grabbed my foot and his hand reached for my ankle to my calf. He gave me a squeeze and I relaxed hopelessly. Hand back down to my foot and stayed there all night. I think I have not slept so calm since Grandma was alive.


End file.
